Although the data capacity of 3GPP networks has increased significantly since its initial development, user traffic continues to outpace the growth in capacity, resulting in increased network congestion and degraded user service. In particular, the explosion of Internet data traffic, especially the growing portion of the traffic traversing mobile networks, has caused much of the congestion currently being experienced. This explosion is partly attributable to the increase in the number of users using smart phone devices possessing 3G/4G capabilities together with large screens and various Internet applications, such as browsers and video and audio streaming applications. Additionally, laptops and tablets with 3G/4G access capabilities are a major source of mobile data traffic. An annual growth rate of 50% is expected to continue, with growth likely to continue outpacing the increase in infrastructure needed to handle it.
When a serving gateway (“SGW”) receives IP packets directed to idle user equipment (“UE”), the SGW can buffer the received packets while it locates the UE. Location of the UE is typically accomplished by directing paging requests toward a mobility management entity (“MME”) using a downlink data notification (“DDN”) message. As will be recognized, excessive paging of this sort from the SGW can overload the MME and place a strain for radio resources on the eNodeB.